The nation's peak Jewish body has launched legal action against an Islamic preacher and religious centre in Western Sydney over alleged anti-Semitic speeches.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) filed a case against Wissam Haddad and the Al Madina Dawah Centre in Bankstown in the Federal Court of Australia last Friday.
In a statement, the ECAJ said the speeches, which were made by Mr Haddad in the mosque late last year before they were uploaded online, breached the Racial Discrimination Act.
The ECAJ said Mr Haddad made "derogatory generalisations about the Jewish people", including descriptions of them as "vile" and "treacherous".
The organisation also references comments from Mr Haddad saying Jewish people had "their hands everywhere — in businesses" and in "media".
The Al Madina Dawah Centre has been contacted for comment.
ECAJ co-chief executive Peter Wertheim, who filed legal proceedings, said the organisation "in good faith" tried to resolve the matter through the Australian Human Rights Commission.
"We have commenced proceedings in the Federal Court to defend the honour of our community, and as a warning to deter others seeking to mobilise racism in order to promote their political views," he said in a statement.
"We are all free to observe our faith and traditions within the bounds of Australian law, and that should mean we do not bring the hatreds, prejudices and bigotry of overseas conflicts and societies into Australia."
Mr Wertheim said the organisation felt like it had "no alternative" but to take the legal action because the government had "failed" in its role of "maintaining and strengthening social cohesion".
"It should not fall on our community, or any other community, to take private legal action to remedy a public wrong, and to stand up to those who sow hatred in our midst," he said.
He said there was a concern that the growing conflict in the Middle East had seen social cohesion in Australia "strained and frayed and tested," over the past two years, but there was a clear difference between criticising Israel's actions in the conflict and espousing anti-Semitic views.
"There has been some opportunistic use of issues from overseas to promote racism," Mr Wertheim said.
"There are some people who will not hesitate to mobilise classical or latent forms of racism in order to promote a particular political point of view about a contemporary issue and I think we've seen quite a lot of that, far too much of it actually, in Australia."
He said he hoped the legal action would be a warning to others.
"It will set a precedent and we are hoping that it will send a message," he said.
The ECAJ said it was seeking a ruling that Mr Haddad and the mosque breached the Racial Discrimination Act, the removal of the speeches from the internet and a ban on "similar content" being uploaded online.
There is also an order for the Al Madina Dawah Centre to publish a corrective notice on the centre's social media pages and an order for costs.
No order for damages or monetary compensation is sought, according to the ECAJ.